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Abstract:
The aim of this experiment was to use event-related brain
potentials (ERP) to identify the neural basis of deception.
Deception was modeled in two ways; as a response conflict and as a
monitoring task. Subjects performed an old/new recognition task
under three conditions: Truthful, Opposite and Random. In the
Truthful condition, subjects accurately pressed one button for old
words (from a previously learned list) and another for new words.
In the Opposite condition, subjects pressed the new button for old
words and vice versa. In the Random condition, subjects were
instructed to respond deceptively 50% of the time, and to do so in
a random fashion (e.g., for old words, subjects pressed the 'new'
button on half of the trials). Sixteen subjects (9 females)
performed each task while ERPs were recorded (bandpass: 0.0135 Hz;
sampling rate: 100Hz) from 32 scalp sites for a 2150ms epoch (150
ms baseline). Subjects had high levels of correct responses in the
Truthful and Opposite conditions and successfully made equal
numbers of correct and incorrect responses for both word categories
in the Random condition. The results showed that both deceptive
responding conditions produced a similar pattern of behavioral (RT,
RT variability) and ERP activity (both stimulus- and
response-locked) that was different from the Truthful condition.
Specifically, the results revealed a continuum, in which Random
always produced larger effects than Opposite.
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